Features

With changes due to the time limit for enforcement action in England for breaches of planning control, Neil Collar and George Sismey-Durrant highlight other differences in planning law between England and Scotland. From 25 April, the time limit for enforcement action in England will be 10 years for

Tony Lenehan KC, president of the Criminal Bar Association, explains how the Scottish government could help complainers right now. On Tuesday afternoon, just as the Victims’ etc Bill met with a poorer reception in Holyrood than the Scottish government had hoped, I was at Glasgow University par

Growing up, Nina Taylor had no thoughts about becoming a lawyer. The first in her family to go to university, she’d started life above the Rainbow Café in Coatbridge, which was run by her Italian father’s family, and wanted to become a journalist. Having just taken up the chairman

Kieran Thrall and Kate Ross explain a determination by the Outer House that notification of loss and expense claims is a condition precedent to entitlement and highlight its implications for the construction industry.

The issue of compulsory mediation is exercising legal minds on both sides of the border and, as the appetite for change in Scotland increases, the matter of its feasibility or desirability becomes ever more relevant, writes Molly Somerville. Mediation is an assisted negotiation, where parties v

Douglas Cusine is impressed by a 'first-class', enlightening and readable account by a child protection lawyer of an under-resourced and neglected area of the law.

Tax expert Scott Webster delves into the new residence-based system which will replace the existing non-dom regime from next year. As part of the recent 2024 Spring Budget, significant changes were announced to the way in which non-UK domiciliaries (non-doms) are to be taxed from 6 April 2025.

Scotland's earnest desire to be noticed by the world has been fulfilled. But, as the adage goes, 'be careful what you wish for'. David J Black reflects on the chaos of the past few weeks, as we put into practice the 'progressive' ideas that others have merely preached. Says Police Scotland: "The Hat

Robert Shiels commends an important new book on the Dreyfus case which exposed the anti-semitism in French society that would eventually find expression in the Vichy regime and the obscenity of French police rounding up Jews to be sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. Maurice Samuels, a

At the end of January 2024, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) delivered its judgment in the action raised by Thatchers Cider Company Limited against Aldi Stores, finding that Aldi had not infringed Thatchers’ trade mark in relation to its cloudy lemon drink and also that it had

After much delay, the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was published on 27 March 2024. Next, it will be scrutinised by a Holyrood committee and voted on by MSPs, probably later this year, writes Dr Mary Neal. Much can (and will) be said about whether this bill is safer for pa

Robert Shiels commends a new look at the self-invented authoritarian Caesars who present such a clear and present danger to democracy and the rule of law today.

All personal injury actions raised after 30 June 2021 are subject to Qualified One-Way Cost Shifting or QOCS. What are the implications of this for a pursuer’s case? Chloe Neil explains. The law in Scotland was changed following the introduction of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proc

Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Britain began to face up to the changing world of the 20th century which would bring an end to the greatest empire the world has ever known. Robert Shiels enjoys a readable new account. With this readable general narrative of the Edwardian period, Alwyn

Rebecca Samaras never planned to be a lawyer. Having grown up in Ramsgate and then Liverpool, it was history and archaeology that was her passion – Alexander the Great was her hero and as a youngster she was determined that she was going to find his tomb. But, having found herself a single mot